Better late than never
by sharkinterviewee
Summary: 100% fluff - Jake's been home for 3 weeks. After the nightmare that was Florida, he's finally back home. Back with Amy. Best 3 weeks he's had in a long time. There's a little fact that's been bothering him lately, even though he knows that Amy probably doesn't care at all. They're both snuggling together on a Saturday morning when he brings it up. "I missed our anniversary."


It's been three weeks back in Brooklyn now. The best three weeks he's had in ages. The happiest three weeks he's had in ages. After six months away he's finally _home._ After six months away home came and got him, totally rescued him super bad ass like, and brought him back with her. Really the whole gang was part of the rescue mission, taking down Figgis and helping Jake and Holt not die, but Amy Santiago was the member of the cavalry he missed the most.

It's been three weeks back in Brooklyn. Three weeks back with Amy. Three weeks back home.

Falling asleep and waking up next to Amy like he had been dreaming of every night in the months they were apart.

But there's been something nagging at the back of his mind. Amy hadn't mentioned it at all yet, and truthfully, he knew she probably didn't care. She probably hadn't even thought about that fact since they've been reunited. He's been thinking about it though. Out of all the awful days he spent in Florida, that one day was without a doubt the worst. He was thinking about that day again this morning. It was bothering him, that little fact. He wanted to do something about it.

It was 10 AM Saturday morning, but he and Amy still hadn't gotten out of bed yet, despite being awake for over an hour by that point. There was no reason to leave the bed when everything you need is lying right there next to you.

Amy was dragging her finger over his chest, to his shoulder, down his arm- connecting the dots between his freckles like they're her own personal constellations. Connecting her stars together with a lazy and satisfied smile on her face, a smile that makes him think that maybe he's all she needs too.

"I missed our anniversary," he said suddenly.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Amy looked beyond confused, and he knew he was right that it hadn't even crossed her mind since he's been back. He was the only one that had been thinking about it lately, the only one with it nagging at the back of his mind.

"I missed our first anniversary. One year. We hit one year when I was in Florida. I missed it and I missed you."

Her eyes softened when she caught his meaning, and she left her constellations behind to bring her hand up to stroke his cheek.

"Jake, you know that doesn't matter," she murmured. "I missed our anniversary too. When I got to rescue you from the Florida heat I showed up four months late to our anniversary. But that doesn't matter either. The only anniversary that mattered was when I got to see you again. Six months since I last saw your face. And we celebrated that anniversary if you'll recall," she winked at her not so subtle innuendo to the reunion sex. The past three weeks have been filled with reunion sex. And Amy honest to god winked at that, even though it looked weird since her head was laying sideways on her pillow to face him so one eye was sorta half covered and it was a bit harder to tell if she was winking or blinking than it would have been otherwise. But Amy Santiago freaking winked at him after her sexual innuendo and he couldn't help but laugh. Couldn't help but smile when she started laughing too.

And when they stopped laughing and were just smiling at each other like a couple of idiots he brushed her hair behind her ear in the warm silence. The comfortable silence. The happy silence as she smiled at him with the smile he'd been dreaming of the past few months. And it was finally good. Life was finally good again. Everything was good next to her, but he was still just the slightest bit disappointed that they couldn't go back in time and not miss it.

"I know it's not a huge deal, but still..." he trailed off as he trailed his touch along her skin. "We didn't get to do that one together. First one. There's only one first one, y'know? That's the one with all the symbolism. It just sucks we didn't get to do our first anniversary together."

"Okay, first of all: it is so adorable how disappointed you are about _symbolism,_ " she teased his readily apparent sappiness and he wasn't even embarrassed. Before all the witness protection junk when his girlfriend pointed out when he did something that was totally over the top in sappiness he might have gotten a bit embarrassed and grumbled at her to shut up when she was smirking and telling him that his blush was cute. Symbolism was the over the top cliché type of stuff that might've embarrassed him just a tad bit before, but he wasn't even the slightest bit embarrassed now. He missed everything about her. He missed her teasing at the cliché stuff. He missed the utterly happy smile she got when he did the cliché stuff for her. He missed how happy he felt when they did the cliché stuff together (even though it could still be a little embarrassing at times because he was pretty sure being uncomfortable with huge displays of emotion and sappiness was written in his genetic code). But he wasn't even the slightest bit embarrassed now about how disappointed he was about missing the symbolism of their first anniversary. He could readily admit that without a problem.

"Secondly, we did celebrate our first anniversary together," Amy said like that actually made sense when the whole conversation was about how they _didn't_ spend their first anniversary together. "You took me to the library for our first anniversary, remember? And it was so cool getting to spend the night at the New York Public library on our very first anniversary. The first anniversary we ever celebrated was our six month anniversary. And it was amazing. Some couples don't celebrate their first six months together, so the first anniversary they end up celebrating is their first year together. We celebrated six months together as our very first anniversary. We had a great first anniversary, we both missed our second anniversary, but our third six month anniversary is coming up pretty soon. We can start celebrating in years on our fourth anniversary. But for now we're still celebrating every six months. That's our anniversary. Twice as many celebrations in the same amount of time. Four anniversaries in two years is so much better than two anniversaries in two years, don't cha think? Twice as many celebrations."

Amy always was the best at making him speechless, in the best possible way. Like right now. When she was being perfect and saying the most amazing things, of course he was speechless at that. Amy Santiago being all Amy Santiago all over the place. Amy Santiago being all Amy Santiago all over _his_ place. Amy Santiago who was way too good for him, but for some miracle she was happy with him. For some miracle she was just as happy waking up next to him as he was waking up next to her. Amy Santiago who refused to sleep in even on the weekends was content to just lie in bed with him for hours, pillow talking it up, turning his freckles into her constellations.

Jake had no idea how he ever got so lucky to have this. To have her. Even though having to go into witness protection for months cause of death threats seemed like pretty bad luck, he knew without a doubt that he was the luckiest person to ever live. God, he loved her.

"God, I love you."

Her smile widened at that and he was sure he'd never find the right words to tell her exactly how happy her smile made him.

"I love you too, Jake. So much. I'm so glad you're finally home."

* * *

Jake was in the middle of the process of making dinner when she brought up her idea later that day. He wasn't master chef or anything, but compared to Amy he was damn near magical in the cooking department. She couldn't even touch a kitchen utensil without it bursting into flames, so he always was the one who cooked for them (sometimes Amy helped, but sometimes her help did more harm than good if he ever gave her too much slack when it came to supervision). When they got back to Brooklyn and started living their lives like normal again, Jake driving to the precinct in the morning and not some awful event center or ATV dealership, of course he started cooking for his girlfriend like normal again. Especially when Amy told him she hadn't had a home cooked meal since he left. And then confessed that she tried to use the stove top once in the past six months, but after the grease fire she swore off anything more intense than the microwave or the toaster.

"So you planned our first anniversary perfect for me and it was definitely in the top five list of best gifts I've ever gotten in my life. And of course it was sweet and amazing and I know you had fun staying the night there after hours too, but it was _your_ present for _me_ that we both got to enjoy. You got me an experience. On this next anniversary I wanna do the planning for _you._ I got you a gift last time and you planned me an experience. I wanna switch it up next time. You can get me a gift if you want, but don't do an experience, cause I'm gonna get you an experience. I'll probably get you a gift too since I know how much you like opening things and wrapping paper, but I'm also in charge of planning. Giving you an experience we can both enjoy together."

"Why do you sound like you're expecting me to argue with you on that game plan?" He laughed and tapped her on the nose with the spoon he was holding. Amy was about to chide him about being messy and getting sauce on her nose that she could feel, but before she could complain he kissed her nose and got the sauce off for her. She tried not to smile at that, but she couldn't help it.

"For real though, why do you sound like I'm gonna put up a fight to that? That's gonna be awesome. Surprise mystery day _and_ a surprise box to open up in two months? You've got me swooning over here, Ames. Though I think I set a pretty high standard for experience presents the first time. Cause I know you so well and knocked your socks off via library passes. I'm not sure you can top that," he teased and Amy rolled her eyes.

"I can and I will top that. Just you wait. I accept that challenge and in two months you're gonna be eating your words cause I know you so well and I'm the best event planner ever. You're gonna be trying to best _my_ experience the next one after that, cause I will definitely top your experience. I'm so gonna beat you and become reigning champion of best experience giver in this relationship. You know how good I am at planning. I'm gonna plan your socks off. No way you're gonna top the record I'm gonna set in two months for awesome experiences. I'm so gonna beat your standard. You know I will," Amy said and he could tell by the look on her face she was already starting to scheme. Her hyper-competitive nature flaring up when he was trash talking her over romantic gestures. Really, sweet talking her over romantic gestures.

Yup, he was definitely the luckiest person in the world.

* * *

 **AN: First semester of college has been sucking up a lot of my time lately, so I appreciate the patience when it comes to my updates.  
** **Hope you all have a good day!**


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